A Time In The Past
by Rahn Mechabot VII
Summary: PG for a possible slip-up or two. Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Sally, and Rahn must head far into the past and bring Robotnik back before he does damage to the timeline and finds whatever he is looking for. Just so you know, possible romance. Maybe.


This here will be my third fic in the Sword of Chaos Saga. The saga only has three fics in it, so this will be the last one in it. After this, the next saga will begin.  
  
Anyways, this story should introduce the third and final ally to Rahn. So, I hope you enjoy it! I know I said I would put my other fics on hold and such, but I've decided that I'm going to try to write both at the same time.  
  
Now, I do not own Sonic (which is obvious) and I do not own anything else that relates to any kind of other show, comic, movie, and ect. However, I do own the characters and objects that I create in this fic, so please don't use them unless you have my permission.  
  
Well, read and enjoy. Oh, and please leave any comments at the front doorstep when you leave (front doorstep being the review section).  
  
  
  
Chapter 1  
  
  
  
The city of Robotropolis. A dark city polluted with smog, scrap metal, building remains, and populated by an almost pure robot population. Very few dare to actually enter the stronghold of Robotnik. Those who do usually never leave and become a part of the robot populace, thanks to the robotisizer. However, one group does dare to enter. They are the few that actually have the guts, and courage to take on Robotnik head on. They are the Freedom Fighters.  
  
They had received reports that Robotnik was plotting a new scheme, thanks to their two spies, Sir Charles and Robo-Knux. They told the Freedom Fighters that Robotnik had recently acquired the time stones. For what purpose, they didn't know, but it couldn't have been good if Robotnik had them. Sally, the leader of the Knothole Freedom Fighters, had taken a small group to Robotropolis to investigate what Robotnik was planning. Now, we join the group of heroes as they enter the city.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Sally, Sonic, Shadow, Rouge, and Tails crawled through one of the ventilation ducts inside Robotniks main command center on their way to where Uncle Chuck and R.K. had said Robotnik had stashed the time stones. They were inside his main research area, which was around the twenty-fourth floor of the tower. It was rather dusty inside and the dust made their eyes water and the nostrils burn. Everyone was having some trouble breathing, but they managed to keep up pace. Sally stopped and positioned herself so she could reach for Nicole, which was located on a belt attachment to her leg. She pulled Nicole up to her and opened a coded link to another group inside the building.  
  
"Rad Red, this is Acorn 1, come in" she said.  
  
"Rad Red here, what's up Sal?" said Knuckles.  
  
"What is your groups' position?" she asked.  
  
"Well, I'd say we are about two floors away from the destination. How about you guys?" asked Knuckles.  
  
"About the same. I'd say we'll be there in about five minutes or so" said Sally.  
  
"Alright then. We'll see you there." Knuckles turned off his com link and Sally closed Nicole.  
  
"You know, we could get there faster if we just run there. I've looked out into all the hallways and rooms we've past and I haven't seen a single Swatbot" said Sonic  
  
"Sonic, just because you don't see them doesn't mean that they aren't there" said Rouge.  
  
"Yeah, and besides. Even if they are not there, I wouldn't risk my butt going out there" said Shadow.  
  
"Well, this sneaking around is getting boring. I'd rather be killing them rather than sneaking around like this" said Sonic.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Meanwhile, in another part of the building.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
"You know what, sometimes I'm glad I don't have to breath" said Rahn as him and the others crawled through the air duct. Everyone but him was coughing and hacking every few minutes as they continued up to the twenty- fourth floor.  
  
"It shouldn't be much further guys, just try to tolerate it a little longer" said Knuckles.  
  
"If we don't get out of this thing soon I'm going to lose a lung from all this coughing" said Casey.  
  
"Well, I told you you didn't have to come along, but you were the one that begged me to ask Sally" said Daniel.  
  
"Bet'cha your kicking yourself now, huh?" said Julie-Su. Casey groaned a bit, but continued on. After a few more minutes of crawling through the duct, they finally came to a steal grate that looked over their destination. Robotnik's research lab. Across the room, which was about the size of a hanger, Knuckles could see Sally and the others looking through the other grate. Inside the room was Snively, Metal Sonic, some Swat bots, and the fat dictator himself, Robotnik. Knuckles then noticed the objects that Robotnik had on the table. They were, indeed, the time stones.  
  
These stones, seven in all, had the ability to send people back and forth through time. Sonic had to use them once before on Little Planet, where the stones came from. But now, Robotnik had them again. But for what purpose?  
  
"Well Snively, is everything ready?" asked Robotnik to his nephew.  
  
"Yes, sir. The machine has been checked and re-rechecked for any possible errors that could happen, and the factories have been put on standby until our return. All we need now is to insert the time stones" said Snively. Robotnik looked towards Mecha and nodded his head. Mecha acknowledged the command, and picked up the time stones on the table they were on. Then, he walked over to a large machine that had been built into the wall.  
  
"That doesn't look like a machine of Robotnik's design" said Sally. "Nicole, can you get the blueprints to that machine?" she asked her small computer.  
  
"I believe so Sally. Please wait" They all waited, and continued to watch Mecha. He inserted a time stone into seven individual slots, allowing the small claw to come out and take the stone from his hand before he sealed it in. After Mecha had inserted the stones, a Swat Bot came up and typed in a few numbers on four different keypads.  
  
"Are we ready Snively?" asked Robotnik.  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"Good. Mecha, lets get this trip over with!" Mecha slammed a large green button on the machine, and it started to run. The seven stones glowed brightly as a small beam shot out from the bottom of each slot, and combined a few feet in front of the machine. Slowly, a small, multi colored wormhole appeared. It grew larger and larger until it was large enough to send through a small battalion. Snively looked at the portal reluctantly, but Robotnik was staring at it with a wide smile on his face.  
  
"Snively, why don't you go first?" asked Robotnik. Before Snively could protest, Robotnik had picked him up, and flung him into the portal. Snivleys screams of terror and panic were soon silenced as he entered the wormhole and dissappeared.  
  
"Sir?" said Mecha. "Why exactly are we going back in time? Would it be to kill the hedgehog before he bacame a threat to us?"  
  
"As much as I'd like to, no. Our 'benefactor' requests a few certain items that we haven't been able to locate for him yet. Well, demands with the threat of death, really. So, instead of just looking for them in the present time, why not just go back and collect them when they are somewhat easier to locate?"  
  
Mecha nodded his head in understanding. However, they didn't know the freedom fighters were listening in. They also didn't know that Sonic was now shuffleing past everyone in front of him in the vent and was about to kick the grating out.  
  
"Hey, Buttnik!" Robtnik turned his attention to the vents just as the grating fell out and crushed the Swatbot standing under it, and to see Sonic jump out and land a few yards away from him.  
  
"If you think I'm gonna let you use the time stones as your own personal on ramp to the space-time highway, then you better think again!" shouted Sonic. Another noise made its way to Robotniks ears as the other grating was kicked out, and five more freedom fighters jumped out. Then, four more came from where Sonic had come from. The Swatbots all had their weapons activated and were aiming head shots at every one of them.  
  
"I was wondering when you would show up, Sonic. You always have a knack for interferring with things, as do the rest of you" said Robotnik.  
  
"Whatever your planning to do, Robotnik, we're not going to let you succeed!" shouted Sally.  
  
"Oh, but I will, Princess. You can follow and try to stop me if you wish. But, before you do, I want to show you something" said Robotnik as he pulled out a remote from his pocket and pointed it at a crate behind them.  
  
"I wasn't going to use this until I researched it and found out how to produce them, but now seems like a good time to use it. It was a generous gift from my benefactor, the very same who has supplied me with those rifles you like to steal from me so much." Robotnik pressed the button, and the crate exploded into a thousand pieces. Everyone covered their heads to block the splinters and wood chips from skewing their eyes, then dropped them when it was safe to.  
  
Tails was the first to see the what 'used' to be inside the crate, and his eyes widened til they couldn't widen anymore. Standing there was a 6 & ½ foot tall robot. It's torso, which was also the head, had a large black lens. Attached to the back of the torso were two sets of rock launchers, capable of firing nine rockets each. It's arms were chain lasers, and it's legs were heavily armored. (think about a mechwarrior, but instead of a cockpit, you have the head of that mech robot from Robocop3).  
  
"Wha-wha-wha.what the hell is that thing?!" yelled Rouge.  
  
"I don't know, but it sure doesn't look friendly!" yelled Shadow.  
  
The Swatbots entered the time wormhole, followed by Metal Sonic just a few seconds later. Robotnik walked to the wormhole, but turned around and said one last thing.  
  
"Have fun, Freedom Fighters! Dire Droid! Destroy them!" ordered Robotnik. Then, he turned and left into the wormhole, which dissipated as soon as he entered it. The Dire Droid, as it is now known, raised both its arms, and opened fire on the group of ten Mobians. Sally, Rouge, Casey, and Julie-Sue quickly turned over the metal table in the room and took cover behind it. They each reached down towards their matter buckles, which each freedom fighter now had, and pulled out a laser rifle or one of the few Imperial Sniper Rifles that they had in Knothole.  
  
All the guys attempted to go head to head with the metal beast, but they were not having much luck. Somehow, it was able to track their speed and force them to retreat away from it or risk getting shot. Even Sonic and Shadow were having trouble outrunning the lasers!  
  
"Dang! We can't even get close to the thing!" yelled Knuckle as he dodged another chain of laser fire.  
  
"Then let us girls show you how it's done!" yelled Julie-Sue, as she, Sally, Rouge, and Casey each raised up from behind the metal table, and fired at the robot. The droid saw the incoming fire, and made no attempt to dodge. The laser bolts made target. Well, sort of. The bolts collided with a sheild of some kind, and deflected the laser bolts to different parts of the room. Shadow jumped behind another table in the room, barely missing one of the deflected lasers.  
  
"Yeah, you really showed us how it's done!" he yelled to the girls.  
  
"It's got a sheild?! Since when did Robotnik start putting sheilds on his robots?!" yelled Casey.  
  
"In case you forgot, Robotnik didn't build this thing, someone else did!" yelled Knuckles as Sonic ran by him.  
  
"Not to worry! I'll take that thing down faster than you can add one plus one!" said Sonic as he charged at the droid. Tails noticed Sonic running head first towards the Dire Droid and made a vain attempt to warn him.  
  
"Sonic, don't!" Sonic ignored him, and curled into his famous spin dash and aimed for the droid's legs. However, he never made contact. He hit the sheild, full force, and was met with an electric shock, then sent hurdling across the room and landing behind the girls.  
  
"Sonic, are you alright?" asked Sally as she attempted to help him to his feet. Sonic got up slowly, but wasn't hurt to badly.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Now I know what a mosquito in a bugzapper feels like" he replied as he tried to rub some of the static from the electric shock from his quils. A few seconds later, most of everyone was now ducked behind the metal table. Rahn and Daniel stood in front of the table and deflected the laser blasts away while Knuckles and Shadow still attempted to attack the robot.  
  
"Whoever built this thing was good, I'll give'em that!" said Knuckles as he took cover next to Shadow.  
  
"Yeah, well I'm willing to bet that thing is pretty slow, and probably takes forever for it turn around. Maybe we should try going around it?" suggested Shadow.  
  
"Whatever works, gor for it!" said Knux. Shadow nodded and jumped out of cover, making a beeline towards the Dire Droid. However, just before he hit the sheild, he made a hard right and started to circle around the robot. Shadow's theory was soon wrong, as the droid quickly swiveled on its torso towards him and fired. Shadow, now realizing this wouldn't work, continued going in circles around the droid. It followed his every move, and continued to swivel around in circles on its torso shooting its deadly lasers.  
  
"Well, that will keep that thing busy for a moment while we think of a plan" said Sally as she turned to everyone else. "Any suggestions?"  
  
She heard a few, but then quickly realized that they wouldn't work. She turned to Rahn and Daniel, who had both stopped deflecting laser fire since it was all concentrated on Shadow now. Daniel glanced at her and shrugged. The resident jedi didn't have any idea apparently. She then turned to Rahn, who also gave her a quick shrug. No suggestion from the mechabot/weapons master either. She turned back to everyone else, but then she noticed Tails was in deep thought as he looked at the droid. He hadn't said anything yet, so maybe he has an idea.  
  
"Tails, you have any thoughts?" she asked him. Tails turned his head and looked at her, thought for a moment about what he was gonna say, then decided it might work.  
  
"I have an idea, but it's a gamble" he said as he turned toward everyone. "Did any of you notice how quickly that thing is swivling around?" Everyone nodded. "Well, just like my cyclone, it's probably designed like that for a reason. I'm guessing for if something got behind it, the same reason I made my cyclone able to rotate so fast on its torso like that thing is doing. There's probably no shielding on it's back, and if we can hit the thing at the right moment.well, you know."  
  
"Well, how do we hit it? That thing is turning around pretty fast, and Shadow can't keep that up for much longer." said Rouge.  
  
"Then we hit it with something just a fast" said Sally. "Rahn, give Sonic one of those sonic grenades you have." Rahn flicked his wrist and shot the grenade to Sonic, who caught it with no trouble.  
  
"Okay, how do you work this thing?" asked Sonic.  
  
"Press the blue button to activate it. After that, you have five seconds to get rid of it. The green button turns the magnetic lock on and off, and the red deactivates the grenade" explained Rahn.  
  
"Ooooookay..sounds simple to remember I guess." Sonic jumped forward towards the droid. It was still swiveling around trying to hit Shadow. The thing was armed and tough, but damn, it was dumber than a Swatbot! Sonic waited for the right moment to charge forth and lay the smack down on this thing. He carefully watched the swiveling droid as it turned and turned. Finally, he saw his opening. He ran forth as fast as he could, turning on the grenade in the process. He reached the droid in time, hit the green button, and slapped the grenade onto the back of the droid. Rahn was right, it didn't have any sheilding in the back.  
  
"Shadow, run away!" yelled Sonic as he ran back to the table. Shadow quickly followed him and collapsed behind the table with him. By now, the droid had detected a foreign object on its body, and was trying its best to shake it off, but to no avail. The grenade detonated, creating the sonic explosion. The sound waves were enough to rip through the armor of the droid, completely blowing it in half, and setting off its unfired rockets. The freedom fighters ducked their head behind the table as debris from the droid fell.  
  
Finally, debris stopped falling, and Julie-Sue and Tails lifted their heads from behind the table. All they saw was the right half of the torso laying on the ground, and a few flaming parts here and there.  
  
"Alright! We got it!" cheered Tails, as well as everyone else there. They gave Tails a pat on the back for finding the weakness, and slapped Sonic a high five for dealing the killing blow. Everyone was so busy giving out congratulations that they never saw the destroyed Dire Droid start to move to a firing position. It had one rocket left that had not been destroyed, and it had enough power left to fire it as well. Both Rahn and Daniel bagan to feel something was wrong, but it was Julie-Sue who finally noticed the droid.  
  
"Guys, lookout!" The droid fired the rocket just as they ducked out of the way. The next thing they all knew, there was a brilliant flash of light and the shouted words of.  
  
"CHAOS CONTROL!!!"  
  
The missle sped forth and sailed into wall, creating an explosion similar to what desimated the Dire Droid earlier, and leaving a large gaping hole. For a few minutes, there was silence in the room. Then, the flash of light returned, bringing with it all ten of the freedom fighters.  
  
"Everyone alright?" asked Shadow, now floating between them all in his super form.  
  
"Yeah, we're all alright, Shadow" said Rouge. "but." Shadow raised an eyebrow at her.  
  
"But.?"  
  
"How did you go into you super form if you weren't in contact with the emeralds?" finished Knuckles. Shadow looked down upon himself, just not noticing the gold aura he was giving off and his metallic silver looking fur.  
  
"I don't know!" said a shocked Shadow. "How did."  
  
"Hey, Rahn!" called Tails. "What's wrong with your sword?" Rahn brought his sword up and noticed it was giving off the blue flame it usually did when he had it powered with chaos energy.  
  
"How odd. I didn't use it's energies at all in the battle, and I'm not using them now, so it shouldn't even be doing that" he said rather calmly.  
  
"That's not normal" said Knuckles as he moved closer to examine both Shadow and Rahns' sword of chaos. "The only way that Shadow would still be able to use the energies of the chaos emeralds in that sword is if he had some kind of mental link with them" he pointed out.  
  
"Maybe it's because he can use chaos control?" suggested Sonic. "I mean, he 'is' the ultimate lifeform afterall, and he can use the emeralds power better than any of us here, well, next to Knuckles and Rahn here that is. Perhaps it's natural?"  
  
Knuckles held his chin in thought. "Perhaps." He'd have to figure this out later.  
  
"Well, if you guys are through speculating, let's just be thankful he chaos controlled when he did, because we would have been toast" said Sally. "But right now, we need to figure out what to do about Robotnik." Sally pulled Nicole out and flipped her open. "Nicole, have you finished getting the blueprints for that machine?"  
  
"Oh yeah.I forgot that was there" said Casey. "It looks like it didn't get damaged at all in the fight. Boy, that's lucky!"  
  
Nicole beeped for a few seconds before she answered Sally. "Yes, I have, Sally." Nicole brought up the blue prints on her screen, but all the text was in an unreadable language of symbols and signs. "Although the text is undecipherable, but I have been able to determine what is is by scanning its components. The machine is apparently a time machine, capable of creating a time wormhole using the time stones. No record of such a machine has ever been recorded or patented. There are also many elements that are unfamiliar to the planet Mobius in it's construction. The same elements inside the rifles, and the droid you recently destroyed."  
  
If it wasn't clearer before, it was now. Robotnik, all this time, has been working for someone. Someone not of this world apparently, since the text and the elements were all foreign to Mobius. The new technology, the unexplained elements inside the rifles, this time machine, the droid, and this benefactor that Robotnik mentioned earlier. It all added up!  
  
"Robotnik is getting all these things from someone.but who?" asked Rouge.  
  
"Whoever it is, their after something, and they've given Robotnik this machine so he could harness, and control, the timestones and get it for them" stated Shadow, who had now powered down from his unexplained super form. Sally looked hard at the time machine in deep thought. They had to go and get Robotnik and drag him back to the normal time, or risk him doing something major to harm the timeline.  
  
"Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Rahn.let's figure out how this thing works and go after Robotnik. The rest of you, head to Uncle Chuck's and contact Knothole to inform them of our situation" ordered Sally. "Then, have Uncle Chuck and Robo-Knux hack into the city computer and find out anything they can on who this 'benefactor' could be, even if it risks their explosure, got that?!" Sonic stepped up to try and talk some sense into Sally.  
  
"Sal, that's crazy! This is crazy! Your crazy! There's no telling what could go wrong if we go through with this!" he told her as she walked up to the panel on the machine with Nicole to figure out where in time Robotnik went.  
  
"I've said that to you countless times, Sonic, and it didn't stop you. So, what makes you think it's gonna stop me?" she said without looking up from the panel as she typed in the date.  
  
"Well.I.Uh.You.The others..umm.good point" he said.  
  
"Well, I'm right behind you Aunt Sally! There's no telling what Robotnik could do, and whatever he's looking for can't be good" said Tails.  
  
"Thankyou, Tails. Rahn, Knuckles, what about you two?" asked Sally. Both nodded their heads and Rahn sheathed his sword into the sheath on his back.  
  
"If I go, we'll have to be careful that I don't get seen by anybody. That is, 'if' we run into anybody" stated Rahn.  
  
"Understandable, we couldn't want you to get burned at the stake" said Knuckles. "Not like it would really kill you or anything, but."  
  
"Sonic, how about you. Naturally, it doesn't matter whether you want to go or not because, either way, I'm going to order you to do so" said Sally. Sonic grinned a little and said "Alright, you win."  
  
"Well, guess that means we better head to Chuck's hideout then. You guys watch yourselfs" said Daniel.  
  
"Yeah, we would hate to find your tombstones at some point if you don't" said Shadow. Julie-Sue went up and embraced Knuckles in a hug before they went to Chucks.  
  
"You be careful, okay?" she told him.  
  
"No problem. Do me a favor, contact The Chaotix and tell them what's happened so far, okay?"  
  
"You've got it" Julie-Sue let go, and quickly ran after the others, who had already left.  
  
"How's it coming along, Sally?" asked Rahn as he stepped up and looked over her shoulder along with Sonic.  
  
"Well, I could get the date, time, and area he went to. But, I couldn't get his exact location" she said.  
  
"Good enough I guess" said Sonic. "So, how do we start this puppy up?"  
  
"Try this" said Tails as he walked up to the machine and hit the large green button that Metal Sonic had hit to start it earlier. In a few seconds, the same rainbow colored time portal appeared, and all five of them stepped up to it.  
  
"It is safe, right?" asked Knuckles, a little weary about it.  
  
"I'm detecting a stable temporal field, so yeah, I think it's safe" said Rahn.  
  
"Oh.well, just wanted to be sure."  
  
"Well." said Sonic. "Here we go!" He yelled as he jumped into the portal, followed seconds later by Knuckles, Tails, Sally, and Rahn. Right after they entered, the portal dissappeared.  
  
  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, many lightyears and star systems away, a massively large, disk shaped ship rested in orbit of a large, gas giant. The dark lord stared at the planet through the glass of the command bridge as he stood there at the edge of the bridge lookout. Below him stood his city, spread almost to the furthest edges of the ship. The many factories and military stations lay sprawled before him, waiting for his every need. Behind him, along the walls and in the four small pits in the floor, were his soldiars and attack droids, working hard at their designated stations. He ignored their rambling and continued to star out into the far reaches of space.  
  
"My Lord!" said one of his officers on the bridge. "You better look at this!" he said as he walked up to him. He held out a data pad for him, and he simply turned his head and glared through his red visor at the officer. The officer shuffled his feet in uneasiness under the seemingly unblinking gaze of the dark lord. He reached out his hand and gently took the data pad from the officer, and looked over it.  
  
"We just received this info minutes ago, Sir" said the officer. "Apparently, Robotnik has used the experimental time machine we gave him, and it shows that he indeed went through to the specified timeline you 'threatened'for him to go to, Sir."  
  
"What is this here?" asked the dark lord. "Five others went in after he departed. Four other lifeforms, and one artificial." He paused for a second, then gazed again at the officer and spoke in a venomous tone. "Who were they?"  
  
"I.I.re..really don't.know, Sir. But, they apparently also destroyed the Dire Droid that we had given Robotnik to help in getting rid of local freedom movement" said the officer. This caught the dark lord's attention even further.  
  
"A species actually destroyed a Dire Droid on their first encounter with it? ..Impressive, to say the least. Usually I'd be angry at such a thing, but seeing how it is Robotnik, I'm not surprised that he managed to screw that up like everything else" said the dark lord. He quickly dismissed the officer, and went back to the view of window overlooking his ship/city, and the planet.  
  
"Soon." he said to himself. "With or without the aid of that puppet, Robotnik, I will have the key to finding the ultimate power, and then, this entire galaxy will fall, and tremble before the burning standings of the Zentraedi Star Empire.  
  
  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
  
  
Well, there's the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to any good reveiws. I suspect there might be a few flames, but you never know. Always be ready for flames. I'll get the next chapter out as soon as I possibly can (which usually means when I get off my lazy bum and write it ^__^). So, until the next chapter! LaterZ!  
  
  
  
Rahn (Mechabot VII) 


End file.
